Vanilla Spritz Cookies with Chocolate Ganache Filling

Once upon a time, I made you these cookies.

I made the cookie dough on a Sunday, made the ganache on Monday, and finally finished assembling them on Thursday. In between, there were spoonfuls of melted chocolate, lazy naps, and lots of snow (June is like, tomorrow, right?). Sometimes, you just need to take a break between batches and pick up a day later, it’s all good!

While these cookies do have some assembly required, they are utterly and completely worth it, two sugar cookies with chocolate filling? I would say so! As you can see from the picture above, determining the right amount of dough to squeeze out was a trail and error situation (I worked left to right, can you tell?). The trick is to squeeze out just enough to form a substantial cookie, without creating a huge splat of dough, case in point, 2nd row 1st on the left). Also, mistake cookies are possibly the best cookies, perfect for “taste testing” and quality control.

No worries if you don’t have a cookie spritz, I just happened to have one my grandmother gave to me and was eager to try it out. The dough would work perfectly formed in small cookies and pressed into flat discs.

Ganache. Let’s talk about this finicky sister. Creating just the right temperature for spreading proved to be one of my biggest challenges. Since the filling will harden when set, there is a fine line between slippery-as-Jell-O-molten-chocolate-lava and impossible-to-spread-chocolate-play-doh texture. I found the ganache worked best when I melted together the chocolate mixture, let it cool to room temperature, then stuck it in the freezer for 5 minutes. Not too warm, not too cold, perfect!

Once upon a time, I finally finished these cookies, and they were worth it. Get into it friends, happy Friday!

2. Whisk together flour and salt, set aside. Using an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat together butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add banana and vanilla and beat on low until incorporated.

3. Mixing on low, slowly add flour and salt mixture until incorporated, scraping down bowl as needed. Transfer dough to cookie press or pastry bag fitted with a start tip. If you choose to form the dough into discs without a press, go ahead and proceed with that instead.

Oh my! Thank you for this recipe! My husband can’t have dairy and so that leaves me a bit distraught sometimes as to what I should bake. And – I just got my grandma’s spitz press this year too. It must have been the thing back in the day Thanks again!